Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala raised questions on the government after US President Donald Trump announces F-35 fighter planes

New Delhi: Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala raised a number of concerns after US President Donald Trump announced that his administration is opening the door to giving India F-35 stealth fighters. These concerns included the absence of recommendations from the Defence Acquisition Council and the lack of consultation with the Indian Air Force and defense experts.

Surjewala also brought attention to the F-35’s operational shortcomings, high cost, and inability to get a “transfer of technology” for domestic manufacturing in a post on X.

“Prime Minister Modi is buying F-35 fighter aircraft from America, but did the Modi government consider these aspects in the national interest before taking a unilateral decision to buy F-35 aircraft at the behest of President Trump?” he said.

In line with the nation’s defense objectives, does the Indian Air Force want to purchase F-35 fighter aircraft? Was the Air Force consulted? Why did neither the “Defense Acquisition Council” that makes decisions on defense purchase agreements nor the committee of Indian Air Force pilots and defense specialists look into and suggest the acquisition of F-35 fighter aircraft? “How, then, can the Prime Minister make a decision on his own?” he said.

The Congress politician further said that the F-35 is the priciest fighter jet in the world, with a price tag of almost 110 million dollars, or Rs 968 crores, for a single aircraft.

Is this beneficial for the nation’s strategic and economic interests, given that the cost of buying 100 fighter planes would be Rs 1,00,000 lakh crore? Was the F-35 fighter plane’s failure to satisfy operational standards acknowledged by the U.S. security agency “Pentagon’s report” itself? Has the Pentagon, the US security agency, acknowledged in its analysis that the F-35 has 65 operational flaws? The leader of Congress also said.

Surjewala asked whether PM Modi had read the Pentagon report and had the Indian Air Force do the same.

“Did the Modi government take cognizance of the fact that the F-35 fighter jets have problems such as design issues in the oxygen system, the complex nature of the aircraft, the malfunctioning of the head-mounted display, and the non-functioning of the flight control system? So did our defense experts and the Indian Air Force examine these issues before deciding to purchase the aircraft?” According to him.

Increasing the intensity of his criticism, Randeep Surjewala said that the “Government Accountability Office” (GAO) of the US government has reported that over half of the F-35 aircraft of the US Air Force are never suitable to fly.

“Did the Government Accountability Office (GAO) look into and report that “avionics difficulties” and “immature and insufficient Block 4 mission system software” throughout the “F-35 development cycle” were contributing to the delays in these aircraft’s delivery? Did the Indian Air Force and our defense specialists look into them for the Modi government?” he asked.

Has the Modi administration acknowledged that Russia and several other nations are prepared to build Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft in India and transfer the technology, but the US government is unwilling to provide “transfer of technology” to India for the production of the F-35? Isn’t this a crucial need for the nation’s largest defense acquisition in seventy-five years? The leader of Congress also said.

Following their bilateral discussions, Trump told a joint news conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, “We will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars starting this year.” Additionally, we are clearing the path for India to eventually get F-35 stealth aircraft.

“There is a process by which platforms are acquired on military sales to India,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said at a news conference when asked whether India has decided to buy F-35s from America after Trump’s statement. In most situations, a call for bids is issued. To them, there are answers. They are assessed. In my opinion, the process of India acquiring a cutting-edge aviation platform has not yet begun. As a result, this is now in the proposal stage. However, I don’t believe that the official procedure in this respect has begun yet.